Vinatieri still putting his best foot forward

Wednesday

Jan 8, 2014 at 7:39 PM

FOXBORO — Bill Belichick is clear on his feelings about Adam Vinatieri.“He’s a great player and a Hall of Fame kicker if there ever was one,” the Patriots coach will tell anyone who asks.Vinatieri returns...

By PAUL KENYON

FOXBORO — Bill Belichick is clear on his feelings about Adam Vinatieri.

“He’s a great player and a Hall of Fame kicker if there ever was one,” the Patriots coach will tell anyone who asks.

Vinatieri returns to Foxboro Saturday night, this time trying to beat Belichick and his Patriots. After spending a decade as New England’s kicker, helping the Pats win three Super Bowls, Vinatieri has continued on and added a fourth Super Bowl ring with the Colts. He has reached the point where, for most of this season, he was the oldest player in the NFL. He turned 41 last month.

Belichick pointed out Wednesday that he arrived in New England at the same time as Vinatieri. The kicker was then an undrafted free agent out of South Dakota State who had spent a year playing with the Amsterdam Admirals in the World League of American Football.

“He was here in ’96, the year I came in,” Belichick recalled. “That was his rookie year, and (he) was very consistent, dependable, tough-minded, good technique player. It doesn’t look like it’s changed.”

Vinatieri never acted like some kickers in being in his own world, Belichick pointed out.

“Adam, when he was here, trained very hard in the offseason, was one of our hardest workers. He worked out with all the other position players and he was never really looked at as a kicker in terms of his offseason program and what he did as far as training, that kind of thing,” Belichick said.

“He was a very well-conditioned athlete. Mentally, he’s as tough and as consistent as they come. I can’t think of anybody, certainly no other kicker that I’ve coached, that I would put ahead of him in terms of mental toughness, concentration, focus, professionalism, all of those things. He just did his job as well as he could possibly do it every day that I was here,” Belichick said.

Vinatieri has 2006 career points, fifth in league history. He has scored more points in postseason play, 205, than anyone ever to play the game. He is still performing at a high level. He had a career- best 34 field goals this season. He made 87.5 percent of his kicks, the fifth-best season of his career. They included 19 from at least 40 yards, the most he has ever had. In the past two seasons, he has converted eight from 50 yards or more.

“As long as I’m still productive on the field and my body is feeling well, I’ll keep going,” Vinatieri said over the weekend. “I don’t feel like I’ve lost very much, if anything, so why not keep it going?”

New England fans might remember that Vinatieri left New England because of money. The Pats made him their franchise player in 2005, which gave him a salary of $2.5 million. The team could have franchised him a second time in 2006, but it would have meant paying him over $3 million. The team, as has been evident with numerous players through the years, sets values for different positions. It opted not to pay Vinatieri that much or sign him to a long-term contract. The Colts did, with a deal that included a $3.5 million signing bonus and $2.5 million per season for three seasons.

The Patriots drafted Gostkowski in the fourth round the year Vinatieri left, and have survived just fine. Gostkowski has not had the chance to kick dramatic field goals in the Super Bowl or Snow Bowl, as Vinatieri did. He was only 2-for-3 in game-winning field goals in his first five years. This year, he has had more opportunity with all the close games New England has played, and he won three games with late field goals.

Gostkowski actually has produced better numbers than Vinatieri. His career field goal percentage is 85.6, fifth best in league history. Vinatieri was at 81.9 with the Pats. This season, Gostkowski led the league in scoring, the third time he has done that. His 158 points were a team record. His field-goal percentage of 92.7 percent (38-for-41) was the second best in team history to Vinatieri’s 93.9 in 2004 (31-for-33).

Vinatieri is aware of what Gostkowski is doing.

“He’s doing awesome,” Vinatieri told the Boston Herald. “I don’t pay attention to a bunch of the individual players, but as the season goes on, you continue to see all the guys’ stats that they’re putting up. When you’re voting on Pro Bowl at the end of the year, he’s always at the very top of the list. He’s a great kicker, and I’ve got all the admiration and respect in the world for him.”

He reported that he keeps in touch with the Patriots occasionally, at least with Tom Brady.

“We still talk very, very minimally sometimes,” he said. “When Tom had his kid, I sent him a congratulations and that stuff. We don’t talk often, but I still have some great memories. When you’re on a team together with some guys, this is your family. Really, it’s just as much as your brothers and sisters and that kind of thing. We had great memories there, too, and I appreciate them.”

When he entered the league, Vinatieri’s claim to fame was that his great-great grandfather, Felix Vinatieri, had been the bandmaster of Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer. Felix Vinatieri was sent back to camp rather than going ahead with the regiment to the Little Big Horn.

When he leaves, the question will be whether he will join the exclusive group of kickers in the Hall. Jan Stenerud, the former Chiefs star, is the only pure kicker in the Hall. George Blanda and Lou Groza, both of whom kicked but also played other positions, also are in the Hall.